Chapter 3
She’dneverswooned before.
Of course, she’d never been fingerfucked by an alien holy man either, so maybe forgiving her girly moment was fair.
As Lishelle gathered her sensibilities—and her skirts—around her, she realized she was alone on the bench. Where had Tynan gone?
She had to push aside a waterfall of blooming vines to peek out into the nexus.
Then she looked at her ownhand, holding back the thick, looping vines. Impossible. The tidy topiary had become a jungle.
But not so jungle-y that she couldn’t see that the nexus was empty except for her and the out-of-control flowers.
The gardeners had said there’d been some strange radiation that affected the plantings earlier. But they’d seemed to think everything was okay now. She snorted in disbelief atthatassessmentas she shouldered through the lush foliage. It was beautiful, but totally not what they’d been going for, design wise. She’d make a note for the gardeners to come back with their clippers tomorrow and keep an eye on the exposed plants.
She took one step and froze. Had she been exposed to something too?
Now that she thought about it, the shrubbery wasn’t the only thing out of control…
She swiveledslowly on one heel, surveying the empty nexus. And looked up.
The vines had all but covered the skylight, with yellow blossoms like huge, happy suns framed against the darkness. No black hole. The spin of the station had taken it out of view. When she curled her lips inward, the molasses taste of the pollen almost made her choke.
Had she been poisoned too? Was that encounter with Tynan a hallucinationor something?
The slick, soft heat lingering between her legs wasn’tjusta dream…
She hurried back to her suite, her slippers making no sound on the deck and no footsteps following her.
By the time she locked her door behind her and programmed a message for the garden staff to be delivered in the morning, she’d all but convinced herself that nothing had happened. Busy with wedding prep, shehadn’t eaten since breakfast, so probably her blood sugar was low. Yeah, and then she’d been mesmerized by the black hole and the crazy flowers and…
Nothing had happened.
She sent another note anyway, to Doctor Boshil, who’d coordinated their post-rescue medical needs. If shehadbeen exposed to whatever had gotten the flowers, it would be stupid to pretend nothing had happened.
Even thoughnothing had.
Feeling a little queasy with uncertainty, she choked down a bowl of soup and a bigger cup of pixberry tea, since fluids were probably what a doctor would order, even an alien doctor, for radiation poisoning and mysterious pollen—then had to go pee because that was a lot of fluids all at once.
As she hiked up her skirts in the bathroom, she found a handprint of pollen on her crotch.
A very big hand.
The yellow powder was bright on her dark skin, like the flowers against the night.
She stripped off everything and jumped into the sonic shower. Then she used the water version. And when the shower beeped a warning at her that she was not being conservation-minded, she switched back to the sonics. As the last droplets vibrated off her skin, she hazarded a glance down.
No pollen,no handprint. See, nothing had happened.
Cautiously, she slid her hand between her legs.
Oh God and gods, she was still wet inside.
Her personal dat-pad was beeping too when she staggered out of the shower. Wrapping herself in one of the ubiquitous Thorkon robes, she dropped onto the big bed with its ton of pillows and replied to the message.
After only a moment, the doctor appeared. “Lishelle,”she said. “How are you?”
Since Lishelle hadn’t told the doctor why she was calling, she was able to keep the lie going for another moment. “Fine,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m calling so late.”
